Fair housing on city agenda

Seymour Common Council will discuss today whether to adopt a fair housing ordinance allowing landlords to deny rental of low-income housing to convicted drug felons but not to same-sex or unwed couples, single parents or pregnant women.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall and is open to the public.

City attorney Rodney Farrow said the city has had a fair housing policy in place since 1996, but because of changes at the federal level, it must be amended so that discrimination against familial relationships can not occur.

“This change is needed in order for us to be in compliance with state and federal housing guidelines so that we remain eligible to receive grants,” Farrow said.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is requiring local governments who receive federal housing money to redefine the term “family” in their fair housing ordinances to include “a single individual and families regardless of actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, identity or marital status of said family members.”

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